Aug. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Oracle Corp., the U.S. software
maker, lost a bid to reinstate a $1.3 billion damages award
against SAP SE for copyright infringement, although it may get
another chance for a trial, a federal appeals court said.

The ruling may reopen a dispute that arose seven years ago
between Oracle and Walldorf, Germany-based SAP, the biggest
maker of business-management software.

Oracle sued SAP in 2007, saying a Texas unit of the German
company made hundreds of thousands of illegal downloads and
several thousand copies of software that it used to market
maintenance services to customers who ran programs from firms
that Oracle had taken over.

A jury awarded $1.3 billion in damages based on the value
of a hypothetical license that SAP would have negotiated for
using Oracle’s copyrighted software. A federal appeals court in
San Francisco today said the award was based on speculation and
sent the case back to a trial judge with instructions that
Oracle be offered a lower damages award or a new trial.

“We are extremely pleased with the court’s decision,”
said Andy Kendzie, an SAP spokesman.

Oracle is barred in a new trial from seeking damages based
on the value of a hypothetical license, the appeals court said,
upholding a ruling of U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton, who
presided over an 11-day trial in Oakland, California, in 2010.

Hamilton had held that the $1.3 billion was excessive and
reduced the award to $272 million. The appeals court said that
was too low and put the damages at $356.7 million, which
represents the highest estimate of Oracle’s lost profits and
what SAP gained from the infringement.

Jessica Moore, a spokeswoman for Redwood City, California-based Oracle, declined to comment on the ruling.

The case is Oracle Corp. v. SAP AG, 12-16944, U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (San Francisco).

To contact the reporter on this story:
Karen Gullo in federal court in San Francisco at
kgullo@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Michael Hytha at
mhytha@bloomberg.net
Joe Schneider, Charles Carter